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Allyson Kazmucha
"Other storage" and all the space it takes up on your iPhone and iPad is a source of frustration for many people. What is "other storage"? Why does it keep building up? What can be done to clean it out? These are frequent questions, especially for anyone running low on storage. There are a few different explanations, but the most important thing is this — there is a way to fix it!
What is the "Other storage" label on my iPhone or iPad actually storing?
While it would be nice to know exactly where all our storage space is going, there are just too many things that require physical storage that labeling all of them would result in a bar that stretched much father than what your computer screen would allow. That's why Apple chose to lump a lot of things into the "Other" category. Basically, the Other category consists of anything that doesn't fit neatly into any other category. And mostly, it's seems like it's filled with cached files and data. That can include:
- Documents & Data
- Safari browsing data
- Mail data
- iTunes data, including files that have been streamed (which can be BIG).
Caching works by taking files from the cloud — in this case iCloud — and temporarily storing them locally to keep them accessible if and when you go offline, and also to speed up the system if you access them frequently.
But what if I have several gigabytes of data being taken up by "Other storage"?
Unfortunately, sometimes caches aren't cleared properly, files get corrupted, and data simply doesn't get dumped when it should. Over time, this can all result in a significant loss of storage space.
Kevin Hamm dug through iTunes video caching to find out more about what's going on. For example, if you stream a movie off iTunes, that movie can temporarily take up over 4GB of space. If it doesn't delete properly, that's a huge chunk of space gone. Restoring from backups can also bring across caches that haven't cleared and files that have't been deleted.
How to free up some of the "Other storage" on your iPhone or iPad
The most effective way to clear out "other storage" is to perform an iTunes backup and restore. John Moltz, among others, has had good results using this method. Since iTunes actually removes all files off of your iPhone or iPad and then places new copies back on, it can clear up caches and purse corrupt files.
Here's what you want to do:
- Back up your iPhone or iPad to iTunes on the Mac or Windows.
- Restore your iPhone or iPad with iTunes.
- Restore from the iTunes backup you made in Step 1.
That's it! Once you're backup is done restoring from iTunes, check out your storage capacity again and see if it's any different. For those of you with 16 GB or smaller devices, a few GB can make a huge difference.
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